Making stuff. Paper curtains, cannabis salve, elderberry syrup, making cakes, making paper pots to plant seeds in, snowshoeing and taking photos of strangers biking past me, making kid toys out of boxes, photographing my cat.
@WeedCat Bet your place smells absolutely scrumptious! We had snow here today, but the temps are above freezing, so it isn't sticking here. I'm hoping after this latest round of storms I'll be able to plant some snow peas! Granny
Since it was psalm Sunday and Easter is next Sunday... Classic Country Gospel, a playlist by commonharold on Spotify Sent from my LG-K371 using Grasscity Forum mobile app
Yes, the elderberry syrup is the nicest smell. With the addition of the ginger, clove and cinnamon, it gives off a gingerbread smell. Still getting snow! You have a very short growing season as well. Curious, do you do container gardening only because of the short season?
I cant grow it in my current location so I buy it now. Scutellaria baicalensis is an ancient herb in chinese medicine used for cold and flues. Its a member of the mint family but tastes earthy/rooty. Not nice in my mind. Several studies show its an anti-viral and has strong anti anxiety effects. My DIL says it has an immediate lowering of her anxiety so I supply both her and my other DIL. My recipe is 2 parts skullcap to 1 part holy basil in vodka. The Holy Basil has a very nice smell/taste and decent properties of its own. Pretty standard 5:1 ratio, liquid to herb. I started my family on it in January in the hope that it would help with covid. Interesting totally unscientific observation is that several family members have gone from sniffles and cold symptoms to no symptoms at all in 2 days on multiple occasions. Interesting results but I make no claims whatsoever. As with all herbs I take a month break every year. Good Luck.
We did the same except with elderberry. Both my husband and I had colds during our 20 isolation. It would come, go away and come back. Not typical for a cold. Never got tested so who knows what we had but we will continue to isolate as long as we can and continue with the elderberry. There are some pretty promising studies and cited papers on elderberry and its ability to coat the cells to make it harder for virus looking to enter. Thanks for the great recipe and thoughts on scullcap as a useful medicinal herb. I will study up on it now. Are you an herbalist? I'm just self taught. We have excellent locals that I trust and respect greatly. It's a wonderful world we have to learn from when it comes to medicinal and culinary herbs.
My younger son is into container gardening- he raises citrus(!) and we get a occasional lemon, kumquat or blood orange. During winter his bedroom is crammed with plants. Right now, he has a lemon blooming and his room smells delicious! I do raised beds and stick to the hardy stuff- peas, rainbow chard, garlic, leaf lettuce, cooking herbs and such. We have gotten snow in June, so up here on the mountain, you never know what sort of weather we'll get! We had a fairly heavy snow shower yesterday, but Wednesday is going to be in the mid 70s! Ten miles down the road (and much lower in altitude) they can grow almost anything! My late husband used to take skullcap for his depression. And I have a cup of "Organic India" Tulsi Sweet Rose tea on the cup warmer right now! It's a tad pricey compared to other teas- $5 for 18 bags, but it tastes just lovely! Tulsi is supposed to be an immune system booster. Friends have been checking in by email or phone. Yesterday, Wade (the developer of the "Harlequin" strain") called and we had about an hour long chat on cannabis, Covid and the future, isolation adjustment and more, and I got a short email from Cousin Bev in Colorado just saying she's still OK and missing her grandkids a lot! (She's a few years older than me and her health isn't that good.) It seems so strange that the very thing that is keeping us (physically) apart, is drawing us together (emotionally)! The number of confirmed Covid cases in my county has risen to 4 after holding at 3 for over 2 weeks. The county north of us has 33 cases of Covid, while to the south there are 17. I am wondering if we are about to have 2 "waves" of Covid hit us from the north and south. We have been very lucky so far. Stay safe and stay home, Granny
I've a water melon plant about 6 months old that has tiny flowers thats my job finding out why the water melon has no melons ...life is tough for melon farmers too ...lol
Been into herbs for 5 decades now, lots of research and talking to other herbalists but have never bothered with certification. Might get to it someday but self taught and learning from others is the old school way and works just fine. I actually think of cannabis as just another herb with fantastic medical properties. Elderberry has also been in herbals for a very long time and has been used medicinally in every part of the world that it grows in. Its anti-viral properties dont seem to be as strong as skullcap but during flu season I make a Elderberry, Licorice and Ginger tincture for my fam. I encourage everyone to use ginger especially the fresh juice as that is very helpfull. One book I like is Herbal Antivirals by Stephen Harrod Buhner. Full of science and great info.
Playing Monopoly yesterday, got fucking destroyed, landed on a hotel'd up boardwalk, then landed on chance and promptly took a one-way trip to boardwalk where I lost. Boardwalk is retarded and completely breaks the game